“United States v. Microsoft was a court case filed against Microsoft
Corporation on May 18, 1998 by the United States Department of Justice
and twenty U.S. states. The plaintiff’s alleged that Microsoft abused
monopoly power in its handling of operating system sales and web
browser sales”. (Wikipedia 1) Basically this means that Microsoft
Corporation was accused of forming a monopoly against all other
software corporations because Microsoft was selling its computers with
Internet Explorer already installed on it. This way customers were
getting a web browser for free almost and therefore. Microsoft sold
more computers. This is known as bundling. Bundling them together is
what gave Microsoft the victory in the so called “browser wars”
because e very Windows user had a version of Internet Explorer
installed on their computer upon purchase. Because of this advantage
it was alleged to be unfair to other web browsers because it unfairly
restricted the competing web browser market.
The trial started in May 1998 with the US Justice Department and the
Attorneys General of twenty US states suing Microsoft for illegally
hindering competition in order to protect and extend its software
monopoly. They were later sued because they were forcing computer
makers to install IE onto the computers they sold. They threatened PC
manufacturers with revoking their license to distribute Windows if
they removed the IE icon from the initial desktop. (WIkipedia)
Videotapes were submitted as evidence during court procedures. Among
these tapes was one that demonstrated that removing IE from Microsoft
Windows caused slowdowns and malfunctions. Viewers noticed that the
tape had been altered because certain desktop icons would be present
in once shot and then not present in another shot. Microsoft later
submitted another tape which turned up to be faulty as well. The
government produced its own tape of downloading other browsers onto
the PC. This process was slow and the icon was not placed on the